NZ Indoor Squads for Malaysia trip named

Hockey NZ's Indoor Hockey programme is following up its recent World Cup experience by attending an FIH sanctioned event in Malaysia.In the space of 18 months the sport will have run two national events, an U18 and master’s tournament, attended a World Cup and now an invitational tournament.

There are already plans for next year that will see growth in the domestic competition and more international opportunities including the Oceania World Cup qualifying event.The bulk of the squads chosen for the FIH Indoor Hockey World Cup are back for the Malaysia trip which starts November 5th.

Coaches Comments

Men’s Lead Coach Reiner Vellinga - “Our performance at the World Cup in February provided us with incredibly valuable insights on where to take our performance program next. The opportunity to go to the Malaysian invitational tournament couldn’t have come at a better time. We will take full advantage of this opportunity to prepare ourselves for the Oceania Championships next year. The player group is a well-balanced mixture of experienced players and raw young talent. It is the exposure to these kinds of international events that will excel the development of the national indoor players and coaches as well as the indoor game in New Zealand in general.”

Women’s Lead Coach Gaye Tarrant - “The opportunity to go to Malaysia and play against some teams that were at the World Cup and some other developing nations is crucial at this stage of our development of Indoor hockey in NZ. The commitment of the girls to travel again this year shows their dedication to making sure that we are learning and improving as a unit. I am excited to be able to work on developing the game maturity at this tournament and allowing the girls to widen their understanding of the game of Indoor hockey”.

Malaysia Squads are as follows:

Women

Melissa Caird Georgia Mayo Madeleine Williamson Hannah Cardno Grace Gibson Kat Moffitt Beth Norman Oriwa Hepi Pippa Norman Tegan Buchanan Jessica Kelly Amy Robinson

Men

Benedict van Woerkom Daniel van Woerkom Max Ruffell Dave Green Matt Symonds Brennan Alexander-Parker Isaac Houlbrooke Louis Beckert Tim Greenwood Daniel Scanlon Stephen Atkinson Ben Allen